Report Viewer in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations On-Premises

It came as an unpleasant surprise: there is no viewer for SSRS reports shipped with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations On-Premises. Even worse, Microsoft has no plans to support it – ever!

The following features are not intended for use in on-premises deployments. There are no plans to implement these features in on-premises deployments:
SSRS Report Viewer control - SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) does not support a report viewer control that is compatible with the on-premises web client.

Source: docs.microsoft.com

The Screen print destination is now missing from the Print destination settings form, and when you try to preview a report such as Invoice or Purchase order, you get the sad message: Print destination Screen is not supported in current environment, redirected print destination to PDF file.

Ok, fine. So we should redirect report execution from Screen to File in Print Management setup. Let’s try it! The output file is getting printed twice to the target folder:

Well, a life without report viewer wouldn’t be so frustrating, if the File print destination weren’t so limited. Namely, at this point you can print files to a shared folder only. Also, each execution of a Print Management report always results in a new subfolder containing the output file, and when many users prints invoices or purchase orders multiple times, it can easily become tricky to locate your own output files. It would help if we could set up output filenames using placeholders. But sadly, with standard SSRS this is not possible, at least not through the Print destination settings form.

Nevertheless, it’s not all so bad. There is a remedy for that and it's completely free - Docentric AX Free Edition, a free D365FO add-on. No matter you have a cloud or on-premises Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations environment you will enjoy a 100% accurate report viewer that is embedded directly in your D365FO and will also allow you to download the currently open report, or to send it to a local printer.

And that’s not all! You can use exactly the same Copy Preview and Original Preview buttons for Print Management reports. Learn how >>

Besides, you will also be able to download report output files directly in your browser when printing reports to a shared folder, and to use placeholders in your output filenames and target folders.

Moreover, Docentric AX Free Edition offers a superior HTML editor with placeholders for Email body, additional Email attachments, the use of placeholders in Email subject and output filenames; saving reports to SharePoint, Azure blob storage, Attachments and File system; improved Print archive and more.

You can immediately download and try it out yourself. This add-on acts as a lightweight component in D365FO in the form of AX models, and you will not spend more than 15 minutes to install it. Besides, it only uses extensions (no overlayering) which makes it a completely safe choice for any of your D365FO projects.

Get Docentric AX Free Edition >>

Update: Microsoft delivered a new embedded PDF viewer for SSRS reports in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations version 10.0.3 PU 27.
Check out the comparison: SSRS PDF Viewer vs. Docentric Viewer >>

4 thoughts on “Report Viewer in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations On-Premises

  1. D365FO on-premises has a known limitation to only export PDF documents. The other file types such as CSV and Excel can be selected from the screen, but don’t work (output file is corrupt/invalid).

    Does the Docentric AX Free Edition removes this limitation as well, allowing CSV/Excel/XML file types to be correctly outputted?

    1. Hi Nickolas,

      I’m wasn’t aware of this limitation. Nevertheless, Docentric Viewer doesn’t allow exporting reports in Excel format, only in PDF (or Word if you are using Full Edition).
      However, in the next version release 3.3.4 (which is scheduled for next week), exporting to Excel from Docentric Viewer will be supported as well.

      Regarding generating SSRS reports in Excel using Docentric print destinations other than Docentric Screen (and which are available with Free Edition too, e.g. Email or File): Docentric employs SSRS Reporting Services to generate a report in Excel if specified so, and distribute it using improved Docentric print destinations. So, if Reporting Services produces valid Excel output files, then Docentric will too!

      Please let me know if this helped.

      Kind regards,
      Ana

      1. Ana,
        Is excel output supported yet?
        Where is this feature confirmed (apart from within your comment above from April 2019?)

        1. Hi Mike,

          Output to Excel is at this points still supported for SSRS reports only. We plan to add the Excel output support to Docentric reports, but it is still TBA.

          Regards,
          Jure

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